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Akadeum Life Sciences, the global leader in buoyancy-based cell separation technology, have announced the preview of their Alerion cell separation system. The instrument will provide a closed system for separating T cells from a leukopak using Akadeum’s revolutionary Buoyancy Activated Cell Sorting (BACS) microbubble technology. The instrument promises to speed up the cell separation process, increase cell recovery, automate several manual steps, improve sample processing robustness, decrease user error incidence, and reduce cell exhaustion.
Currently, revolutionary treatments like CAR T cell therapy can cost upwards of $500,000, partly because current technology is difficult to scale up in manufacturing processes. With few options in the market, customers are forced to settle for mediocre performance from dated technology. Akadeum’s microbubble technology addresses these challenges and offers a paradigm shift in the field of cell separation, activation, and expansion, promising higher performance, and lower prohibitive costs to improve accessibility. The new Alerion system brings even more robust cell separation workflows compared to legacy magnetic-activated cell separation (MACS) and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) instruments. Akadeum’s new instrument enables unmatched scalability and productivity for T cell separation by processing more healthy cells per isolation and more isolations during a manufacturing shift.
Akadeum’s instrument utilises a two-chamber consumable. In the bottom chamber, the leukopak material is mixed with an antibody cocktail and microbubble solution. Using cell-specific binding properties, the microbubbles adhere to a predetermined cell population. Next, a channel between the two chambers is opened, allowing the naturally buoyant microbubbles to float the T cells to the top chamber, leaving the unwanted cells behind in the lower chamber. This automated process can be applied to Akadeum’s negative or positive selection kits and takes less than 60 minutes to complete.
According to Brandon McNaughton, Founder and CEO of Akadeum Life Sciences, “This revolutionary instrument marks an important step in bringing the performance advantages of our products into clinical manufacturing workflows. The instrument provides gentle separation, fast protocols, flexible workflows and does so in a closed system.”
Casey Wegner, Vice President of R&D at Akadeum, added: “For the first time, customers will have a choice of the cell separation technology they use. With the many features of our microbubbles, we believe many will now choose the Akadeum solution. Additionally, with the Alerion achieving cell recovery rates of 90% and above, they will experience more healthy cells for use in cell and gene therapy, as compared to other technologies. Finally, microbubble technology is highly scalable and eco-friendly as opposed to the contamination associated with magnets. We’re thrilled with the work that our team has done to bring this instrument to researchers and developers.”